Associate Professor of History; Faculty Director of the Freeman Foundation International Internship Program in East and Southeast Asia (www.freemanfurman.com); President, Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (www.sec-aas.com)

After growing up in the Minnesota, Lane J. Harris attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he received a B.A. in History. Upon graduation, Harris was selected by the United Board for Higher Education in China to teach English at Northeast Normal University in Changchun, Jilin, China for a year. Returning to the United States, he attended Washington University in Saint Louis where he earned a Master's degree in East Asian Studies with a concentration in Republican (1911-1949) Chinese history. For his Ph.D., Harris attended the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His research focused on late imperial and Republican Chinese postal history. After spending a year in Nanjing researching postal history at the Second Historical Archives of China, Harris returned to the United States and moved to Ellensburg, Washington where he taught World History. He joined the faculty at Furman University in 2009. ​

Faculty Courses Taught

Name

Title

Description

AST-470

Seminar in Asian Studies

Capstone experience for majors in the discipline. Varied topics.

CHN-470

Chinese Studies Thesis

Guided research, translation, and writing on a topic in a field of Chinese Studies in which the student has had previous course work. The student will propose a thesis project to a faculty member in the field of Chinese Studies who by approving it becomes the thesis advisor.

EDSP-674

Teaching About Asia

The purpose of this course is to work with SC teachers to enhance instruction on Asia throughout the curriculum, especially in world history, social studies, and geography courses. Themes covered include geographical determinants shaping the culture, history, and economic development of East Asia; the nature of East Asian society, politics, and culture; interaction among East Asian societies; and East Asian history in the context of world history.

FYW-1189

Social History of Technology

Examine the social life of modern technologies from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to the present. Analyze and evaluate the historical interrelationships between technology, culture, and society, including the impacts and influences of technology from the telegraph to the bicycle and electricity to the internet. Engage in debates on the meaning of technology, the unintended consequences of social technology, the relationships between technology and the environment, and the links between race, class, gender, and technology.

HST-165

Ancient and Imperial China

The history of Chinese civilization from its origins to 1600. Topics include: ideals of cultural unity and division, classical philosophy, religious beliefs and practices, formation of imperial institutions, economic and intellectual revolutions, conflict and accommodation with neighboring peoples, and epic transformations of state and society.

HST-166

Modern China

China in the modern world. Examining major political, social and cultural transformations of the period from the late Qing dynasty to recent dramatic reforms in mainland China and on Taiwan.

HST-268

Twentieth Century China

Investigating, interpreting and debating China's turbulent twentieth century experience. Following an intensive introduction to Chinese history and approaches to historical analysis, students will embark upon an examination of the extraordinary political, social and cultural transformations of this century through a series of case studies structured largely around sets of primary source documents.

HST-272

CHINA IN WORLD WAR II

HST-273

CHINESE CULTURAL REVOLUTION

HST-282

Wars, Rebellions & Revolutions

An in-depth exploration and historical analysis of the political, social, economic, cultural, and military background of a particular period of warfare, rebellion, or revolution in world history. Topics will vary.

Urban History

HST-285A

Mongol Empire

The history of the Mongol Empire, the largest land empire in world history, from its ethnic origins in the 12th century, to its political and military expansion across Eurasia in the 13th and 14th centuries, to its political decline in the 15th century.

HST-315

Interpreting the Past

The historian's craft and how history scholars think about and interpret the past. Exploration of topics, questions and methodologies used to write about history through reading historical works from a variety of times and places.

Faculty Tab 3 description

Current research projects

Book manuscript, "The Post Office and State Formation in Modern China, 1896-1949."

From Official Gazette (官報) to Public Report (公報): The Evolution of Government Publications in Late Qing and Republican China, 1890-1937.

Selected Publications

"Stumbling towards Empire: The Shanghai Local Post Office, the Transnational British Community, and Informal Empire in China, 1863-1897," Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Spring 2018.

"Serving the National Interest: The Qiaopi Industry,
the Chinese Post Office, and the Transnational Practices of the State,
1937-1945," in The Qiaopi Trade and Transnational Networks in the Chinese Diaspora, edited by Gregor Benton, Liu Hong, and Huimei Zhang (New York: Routledge, forthcoming in 2018).

David Kenley, Modern Chinese History (Ann Arbor: Association for Asian Studies, 2012) in American Review of China Studies 15: 2 (Fall 2013): 78-80.

Eugenia Lean, Public Passions: The Trial of Shi Jianqiao and the Rise of Popular Sympathy in Republican China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007) in China Review International 17: 3 (2010): 343-347.

Madeleine Zelin, The Merchants of Zigong: Industrial Entrepreneurship in Early Modern China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005) in The Historian 69: 2 (Summer 2007): 365-366.

"A Mutiny, a Riot, and a Rebellion: The Coolie Trade, Returned Chinese Merchants, and the Small Swords Uprising of 1853," Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Washington, DC, 22-25 March 2018.

"The Peking Gazette: A Source for Nineteenth-Century Chinese History," 56th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, University of Mississippi, 13-15 January 2017.

"'A Godsend to the Treaty Ports': The Municipal Council Local Post Office System, 1863-1897," 64th Annual Midwest Conference of Asian Affairs, Washington University in St. Louis, October 16-18, 2015.

"Serving the National Interest: The Qiaopi Industry, the Chinese Post Office, and the Transnationalization of the State, 1937-1945," at the Conference on the Qiaopi Industry in China and Overseas, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 9-10 October 2015.

"The Post Office and State Formation in World Historical Time," at the International Communication Association Preconference "Communications and the State: Toward a New International History," San Juan, Puerto Rico, 21 May 2015.

"Moving into the Frontier: The Relay System and Ming Empire in the Borderlands, 1368-1449," Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Chicago, 26-29 March 2015.

"The Subao 蘇報 Case, Sir Robert Hart, and the Origins of Modern Censorship in China," International Communication Association National Conference, Seattle, Washington, 22-26 May 2014.

"Post Imperial: The Creation and Abolition of 'Alien Post Offices' in Treaty-Port China, 1843-1923," Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, January 2014.

"Asia's First Republic: The Birth and Development of the Modern Chinese State," invited talk at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, 24 October 2013.

Selected to participate in the Associated Colleges of the South (ACS) Summer Teaching and Learning Workshop at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, 3-8 June 2013.

Furman Advantage Fellowship for a project entitled: "From Official Gazette (官報) to Public Report (公報): The Evolution of Government Publications in Late Qing and Republican China, 1890-1937," Summer 2012.

History Department Fellowship, University of Illinois, 2007-08.

Social Science Research Council (SSRC), International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship, Fall 2006-Summer 2007.

Institute for International Research at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, Nanjing, People's Republic of China, Junior Fellow, Fall 2006.

Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship from the Center for Global Studies of International Programs and Studies, University of Illinois, 2005-2006.

Pre-Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Department of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Summer 2005.;Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence, Washington University in Saint Louis, 2001-2002.

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